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The Abraj Al-Bait Towers, also known as the Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel, is a government-owned megatall building complex in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. These towers are a part of the King Abdulaziz Endowment Project that strives to modernize the city in catering to its pilgrims. The central hotel building has the world's largest clock face and is the third tallest building and fourth tallest freestanding structure in the world. The building complex is metres away from the world's largest mosque and Islam's most sacred site, the Masjid al-Haram. The developer and contractor of the complex is the Saudi Binladin Group, the Kingdom's largest construction company.〔 The complex was built after the demolition of the Ajyad Fortress, the 18th-century Ottoman citadel which stood atop a hill overlooking the Grand Mosque. The destruction of the fort in 2002 by the Saudi government sparked Turkish and international outcry. ==Description== The tallest tower in the complex stands as the tallest building in Saudi Arabia, with a height of . Currently it is the fourth tallest freestanding structure in the world, surpassing Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, but shorter than the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China, the Tokyo Sky Tree in Tokyo, Japan and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The site of the complex is located across the street to the south from an entrance to the Masjid al Haram mosque, which houses the Kaaba. To accommodate worshipers visiting the Kaaba, the Abraj Al-Bait Towers has a large prayer room capable of holding more than 10,000 people. The tallest tower in the complex also contains a five-star hotel, operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, to help provide lodging for the millions of pilgrims that travel to Mecca annually to participate in the Hajj. In addition, the Abraj Al-Bait Towers has a five-story shopping mall (the Abraj Al Bait Mall) and a parking garage capable of holding over a thousand vehicles. Residential towers house permanent residents while two heliports and a conference center are to accommodate business travelers. In total, up to 100,000 people could be housed inside the towers. The project uses clock faces for each side of the hotel tower. The highest residential floor stands at , just below the spires. The clock faces are , the largest in the world. The roof of the clocks is above the ground, making them the world's most elevated architectural clocks. A spire has been added on top of the clock giving it a total height of . The tower also includes an Islamic Museum and a Lunar Observation Center which will also be used to sight the moon during the Holy Months.〔Syed Faisal Ali: (“Makkah Time a new alternative for GMT” ) Arab News, 10 August 2010〕 The building was planned to be tall in 2006. In 2009, it was published that the final height would be . The complex was built by the Saudi Binladin Group, Saudi Arabia's largest construction company. The tallest building in the complex (from a height of up until the tip) was designed by the German architect Mahmoud Bodo Rasch and his firm SL Rasch GmbH.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Serving the Lord, through the lens )〕 The facade was constructed by ''Premiere Composite Technologies'', the clock by German tower clock manufacturer ''PERROT GmbH & Co. KG Turmuhren und Läuteanlagen''. According to the Saudi Ministry of Religious Endowments, the project cost US$15 billion.〔Abdullah Al-Shiri: ("9 modern architectural wonders of the Mideast" ) CNN, 22 January 2013〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Abraj Al Bait」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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